Post-punk groove from Coburg, Brunswick and Hurstbridge, Australia.
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Music
RAT KANGAROO EP02 shifts from the straight-up post-punk rock of EP01 to a more industrial backed, sonically diverse and dangerous territory. It tells stories that come from the dark side of life and living.
Musically EP02 jumps from circus funk to cinematic grunt, then from angular jungle junk to jazz-punk. All four songs are again heavy on the groove, starting life with bass and drums, then layering up and morphing into Rat Kangaroo-style romps. Come hang with the Freaks In The Drain and gape with them into the Crack O’Doom, then mourn the tragic fate of King Kong and despair at the brutal savagery of The Downfall.
Written and performed by Chip Wardale, Andrew Garton and Mark Tallon.
Produced and mixed by RAT KANGAROO
EPO 02 Artwork by RAT KANGAROO.
Print-ready artwork produced with assistance from Amanda Grant.
Koala photo by Pascal Mauerhofer on Unsplash.
Anatomical Muscle and Tendons drawing by A. Durelli, 1837, Wellcome Collection, Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Printed and assembled by Implant Media.
RAT KANGAROO EP 01 contains three guitar-driven songs and a strident piano piece; all up a rollicking punk rock energy, with splashes of humour with a nod to the great punk tradition of belting out a catchy tune with bite and bile.
Written and performed by Chip Wardale, Andrew Garton and Mark Tallon.
Mixed and Produced by Rob Rolfe and RAT KANGAROO.
Recorded at Chip’s Place, Pughouse Studios and The Starlight Room.
EP 01 Artwork by RAT KANGAROO.
Worry Man from “The Sentimental Bloke” (1919) redrawn by Ben Forster
Videos
About
Post-punk music is pretty easy to define. It’s music that embraces the energy, attitude and DIY ethics of punk but musically reaches far beyond the angst and urgent positioning of the genre. Since its conception in the late ’70s with bands such as Joy Division, Magazine, Public Image, The Pop Group, The Birthday Party and Gang Of Four, post-punk has developed across the decades since, as an extremely diverse genre that includes all manner of fusion, from punk and industrial to jazz, electronics and ambient. Performance art and visual art are often embraced. As long as the music is original and contains that original punk creative ethos, it can be said to be post-punk.
Rat Kangaroo has been absorbing, over the decades, all the variations of post-punk music and has, as individuals, written for and performed in a multitude of music projects that have contributed to the expansion of the genre.
Rat Kangaroo music has groove, and it has layers over that groove that can be abrasive or emotive. Whatever suits. Rhythms may twitch and occasionally fall over themselves or sit within a tight pocket of jazz punk. Lyrics describe the mess we may all get ourselves into, or proclaim/predict a future vision, or tell us things we may not want to hear; challenging tales that mirror our personal trails.
Rat Kangaroo music often begins with a bed of rhythm and bass. It’s then layered up through a process of live collaborative jams in the Rat Kangaroo rehearsal studio. Those layers are often developed in isolation and offered back into the soup where they may well be further tweaked until the piece feels right.
Rat Kangaroo is Mark Tallon (Voice), Chip Wardale (Bass, Voice), Andrew Garton (Keyboards, Electronics, Guitar).
Original Rat Kangaroo poster art by Mark Hebblewhite, Hull, England.